What pace is a 5 hour marathon? Splits, run-walk math and fueling

What pace is a 5 hour marathon? 11:27 per mile, or 7:07 per kilometer. Hold that from start to finish and you cross the line in about 5:00:12, so if you want to see a 4 on the clock, aim for 11:20 per mile or 7:05 per km.

That's the easy part. The hard part of a 5-hour marathon isn't the pace, it's the five hours: five hours of fueling, five hours of your feet hitting the road, and the strange discovery that 11:27 per mile feels trivial at mile 3 and like a personal insult at mile 22. This post covers the 5 hour marathon pace per mile and per km, full splits, run-walk ratios that still get you there, where 5:00 ranks, how to fuel it, and the long runs that matter. Plan it by hand or get a coach that tells you how hard to run today, so your easy days stay easy and your long run gets the respect it's owed.

What is the pace for a 5 hour marathon?

The math: 5 hours is 18,000 seconds. A marathon is 42.195 km. 18,000 ÷ 42.195 is 426.6 seconds, or 7:07 per km. Multiply by 1.609344 and it's 686.5 seconds per mile: 11:27.

Run any other goal through a pace calculator the same way. For conversion tables and what pace to train at on easy days and long runs, the hub has it all, and these numbers match it.

5 hour marathon pace per mile and per km, with a buffer

Rounded paces round you out of your goal: 11:27 and 7:07 both finish a few seconds over five hours. Add the extra distance almost everyone runs by weaving around people and aid stations, and the target on your watch should be 11:15 to 11:20 per mile, or 7:00 to 7:05 per km.

5-hour marathon splits

Even pace for exactly 5:00:00:

Halfway at 2:30:00. Twenty miles at 3:48:51. Then 10 km that take more than an hour and feel like three.

Marathon pace chart: 3.5 hour to 6 hour

People searching for 5 hour marathon pace usually want the neighbors too. Same math, every half hour:

So 3.5 hour marathon pace is 8:01 per mile, and 4.5 hour marathon pace is 10:18 per mile. Further up, our guide to sub-3 marathon pace and training covers 6:52 per mile, which is a different sport with the same name.

Where a 5-hour marathon ranks

According to RunRepeat's percentile calculator, the median marathon finish is 4:26:33 overall, 4:14:29 for men and 4:42:09 for women. Its percentile table puts the 70th percentile at 4:52:18 and the 80th at 5:11:00, so a 5:00 finish lands between those two rows for all runners.

By sex, the same page puts a 5:00 between the women's 60th and 70th percentiles (4:53:37 and 5:07:36) and between the men's 80th and 90th (4:55:33 and 5:25:26).

Translation: you're in the back half of the field, ahead of a meaningful chunk of it, and a marathon at any pace is still a marathon.

Run-walk: still a 5-hour marathon

Run-walk isn't cheating. It's pacing with a plan. In a randomized trial of 42 non-elite runners, Hottenrott and colleagues (2016) found the run-walk group and the running-only group finished the marathon in similar times, with the run-walk group reporting less muscle pain and fatigue afterward.

The catch: your running segments have to be faster than 11:27 per mile to pay for the walking. Here's the arithmetic, assuming you walk briskly at about 16:00 per mile:

A slower walk pushes the running pace up a little; a faster walk brings it down. The rules that make run-walk work:

• ›Start the walk breaks from the first interval, not when you're already tired. That's the whole point.
• ›Walk with purpose. A shuffle at 20:00 per mile blows the math.
• ›Practice it on long runs. If you'll run-walk on race day, run-walk your long runs at the same ratio.

Key workouts for a 5-hour marathon

Speed is rarely the limiter at 11:27 per mile. Durability, fueling and patience are. These sessions build all three.

1. The time-on-feet long run

Build the long run gradually toward 18 to 20 miles at easy pace, with a cutback week every third or fourth week. At 5-hour pace, 20 miles is close to four hours on your feet, which is plenty. Many plans for slower marathoners cap the long run by time instead of distance for exactly that reason.

2. The race-rehearsal long run

Two or three times in the last eight weeks: 14 to 16 miles at your exact race strategy. Same run-walk ratio, same 11:15 to 11:20 average, same breakfast, same gels, same shoes. Nothing on race day should be new.

3. The steady midweek run

5 to 7 miles with the middle third at 11:00 to 11:15 per mile. It teaches goal pace without the cost of a long run.

4. Hills or strides

Once a week early in the build, 6 to 8 × 60 seconds up a hill or 6 × 20-second strides after an easy run. It makes 11:27 feel slow, which it should.

5. A tune-up half

A half marathon four to six weeks out. If you run comfortably under 2:30, the speed is there. The marathon question is whether the second 13.1 holds.

A 5-hour marathon training week

Four runs, two lifts, mid-build. In the peak weeks, one well-placed lift is enough.

Lower-body lifting goes on Monday, five days before the long run and two days before the steady run. The long run is the most important session of the week, so nothing heavy the day before it.

Fueling five hours

A 5-hour marathon is a five-hour eating event with some running in it. The joint position stand from the ACSM, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and Dietitians of Canada gives 1 to 4 g of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight in the 1 to 4 hours before exercise, 30 to 60 g per hour for 1 to 2.5 hours, and up to 90 g per hour for exercise beyond about 2.5 to 3 hours (Thomas, Erdman and Burke, 2016).

You will be out there well past three hours, so fueling is not optional. In practice:

• ›Start early. First carbs within the first 30 to 45 minutes, then on a schedule.
• ›Train your gut. Work up toward your race-day amount on long runs. Going from zero to a lot on race day is how stomachs revolt.
• ›Use the walk breaks. They're the easiest time to eat and drink.

If you have medical conditions or specific dietary needs, a registered dietitian is the right person to set your numbers.

Where 5:00 sits on the ladder

Most people climb in steps. What pace is a sub 4 hour marathon? 9:09 per mile, the same as a 2-hour half, held twice as long. Way up the ladder, 1:30 half marathon pace and training is 6:52 per mile, exactly sub-3 marathon pace. Closer to home, a sub-2-hour half marathon at 9:09 per mile is a fine intermediate goal for a 5-hour marathoner, and the 11-minute-mile half marathon is a solid stepping stone before that: 11:00 per mile finishes a half in about 2:24:12.

Shorter races make good speed checks during a marathon base. 55-minute 10K pace and training works out at 8:51 per mile, a goal many 5-hour marathoners can reach, while sub-18 5K pace, 5:48 per mile, is a reminder that there's always someone faster and it doesn't matter.

How exrsz handles a 5-hour marathon

exrsz builds a periodized marathon plan from your goal, schedule, level and equipment, with running and lifting in one plan so leg day stays away from the long run. It adapts each week to how you actually trained and reshuffles missed sessions so the build still lands on race day.

FAQ

What pace is a 5 hour marathon?

11:27 per mile, or 7:07 per kilometer. Both finish a few seconds over five hours, so aim for 11:15 to 11:20 per mile, or 7:00 to 7:05 per km.

What is the 5 hour marathon pace per mile?

11:27 per mile for exactly 5:00. Running 11:20 per mile finishes in about 4:57:09, which gives you a buffer for the extra distance most runners cover.

Can you run-walk a 5-hour marathon?

Yes. A 4:1 run-walk ratio with brisk walking needs running segments of about 10:41 per mile. In Hottenrott and colleagues' 2016 trial, run-walk and running-only groups finished in similar times.

What is 3.5 hour and 4.5 hour marathon pace?

3.5 hour marathon pace is 8:01 per mile or 4:59 per km. 4.5 hour marathon pace is 10:18 per mile or 6:24 per km.

Is a 5-hour marathon good?

It's a marathon, so yes. In RunRepeat's data, 5:00 sits between the 70th-percentile time of 4:52:18 and the 80th-percentile time of 5:11:00 across all runners.